Knitting machine



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Patented Aug. 14, 1945 KNITTING MACHINE Ivan W. (irathey, Laconla, N. H., assignor to Scott &'Williams, Incorporated, Laconia, N. H., a corporation of Massachusetts Original application September 29, 1942, Serial No.

460,048. Divided and" this 24, 1943, Serial No.499fl56 12 Claims.

This invention relates to a knitting method and machine, and particularly to the construction and operation of a circular knitting machine having independent needles. This application is a division of'my applies tion Serial Number 460,0423, filed SeptemberZQ,

application August tion of the yarn carriers is efiected to provide 7 color changes in the wrap patterns. Provision is also made in said machine for reverse plating to form further designs in the finished product, For further control of wrapping and for the control of the reverse plating, there is provided nee- 'dle selection.

The present application relates to certain features of the invention ti d up with the production of reverse plating and wrapping. Various deviccsfunctioning in connection with the production of reverse plating have additional iunctions in connection with the matter of knitting by dial needles, these dual functions 01 certain elements resulting in e, simplification to a subso stantial degree of mechanism capable of performing satisfactorily the various separate functions.

Cine object of the invention to which the present application relates is the provision of means for backing up cylinder needles during rib knitting to impart to them a substantial rigidity against inward deflection of their upper ends under the tension of'stitches. .The invention con- In accordance with the present invention, the

alignment of the-needles is efiected by elements which are conventionally those utilized for the deflection of the needles in the production of reverse plating.

The foregoing object oi the invention, to-

gether with other objects particularly relating.

to details of construction and operation will become clear from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,

in which: Figure 1 is a vertical section through the por= tion of a knitting machine in the vicinity of the upper end oi the needle cylinder, the dial, and the wrap yam carrying and shogging means, illustrating certain features of the invention;

Figure 2 is an interior diagrammatic developmentof the cams for controlling the ncedlesand. wrap fingers and ,theirassociated parts, together with certain additional elements such as yarn feeding elements and wrap yarn controlling devices;

Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 are, respectively, vertical sections, taken through one side of the needle cylinder and its adjacent associated parts at the respective axial planes indi ated in Figure 2 at 3-3, id, 5-5, and 6-6;

Figure l is a perspective view showing in par-=- ticular the devices whereby cylinder needles are aligned for the transfer oi loops from dial needles to cylinder needles; and

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the relationship of a controlling cam to a slider not adapted to be acted'upon by said cam.

The invention is illustrated as applied to a sircular knitting machine for knitting a complete stocking including a rib top, the machine illustrated being basically of the Scott ta Williams rotary cylinder type. The rotary needle-cylinder of substantially conventional form and mounting is illustrated at 2 and is provided with axially extending slots within whic needles and varlens elements associated therewith are siidably mounted. These elements, as will appear most clearly from Figures 3 to 6, include pattern jacks 5 provided at their lower ends with upper and lower steps or shoulders, respectively indicated at 5 and il, there being a butt l provided above the upper step 6. Each jack is provided with a series of selectively removable butts it and carries intermediate and upper butts l2 and it, re-.

55 conventional long and short butts or' with other suitable arrangement of butts in the event that special split foot or other products are to be provided, in which case, for example, suture needles may be provided with intermediate length butts. Outside of the needles there are located presser jacks 24 provided with butts 26 of four different lengths and arranged to be acted upon-by pressers 28 slidably mounted for radial movement in the lower part of the sinker dial 28. sinkers 30 are supported by the sinker dial 2! and the inside cleaning lacks 14 have substantially the width of the needles, thus fitting the slots and sliding therein.

are driven by pattern-controlled mechanism as described in said parent application.

loops from the dial needles to the cylinder needles at the end of the formation of a rib top.

' To secure this result, which will be described in greater detail later, the sliders 28 are differen- For theformation of rib tops, there is provided I a needle dial 34 mountedupon the lower end of a vertical shaft 36, which is arranged to be rotated by suitable gearing in conventional fashion at the same speed and in definite relation to the needle cylinder, this shaft being vertically movable as usual to adjust the relationship between the needle dial and the needle cylinder. Twopart dial needles ofconventional form, indicated at 38 and 48, are mounted in slots in the dial and are provided with butts to be acted upon by conventional cams carried by the dial cap '42, which is secured to a stationary sleeve 44. From the standpoint ofits functions, the dial mech- I anisms supplying wrap yarn to the wrap fingers I through individual tubes 52. See, for example, my Patent-3,053,192, dated September 1, 1936. This is more fully described in said parent application, Serial Number 460,048.

A stationary casting 54, secured to the usual tilting head which supports the dial mechanism and, in the present machine, the wrap yarn supplying devices, provides an inwardly directed flange on which are rotatably mountedtwo rings 58 and 6Iladapted to carry wrap fingers, these rings being provided with gear teeth 62 and .64

- and being held assembled upon the flange of the casting 54 by means of clip members 56. The

rings 58 and 68 are provided with perforations for the reception of screws adapted to hold within the rings brackets supporting the wrap fingers.

. Wrap fingers 18 are pivoted upon these brackets desirably in groups as more fully set forth in said parent application. The wrap fingers are 4 provided with yarn eyes serving for the guidance of the yarns in the proper paths for presentation to abutments and selectedneedles and are adapted to be selectively actuated by pattern-controlled cams for the formation of designs.

The rings 58 and 68 are driven to partake of the general rotation of the needle cylinder and about the same axis, but are adapted to be advanced or retarded relatively thereto to provide shogging of the wrapfingers relative to the needles. To secure this result, they are provided with gear teeth 62 and 84 through which they tiated, as indicated in these figures, by the fact that those associated with lowered cylinder needles which were not knitting in the formation of the rib are provided with vertical outer edges throughout their heights, as indicated at 28b, while those, 28a, which are associated with needles which were knitting during the formation of the rib top have the upper portions of their outer edgescut away, as indicated at 330. A cam 332 pivoted on a fixed vertical pin 334 is located at such height as to line up with the cut away portions 338 of the sliders 28a, so that when'moved inwardly beyond the normal outer position of the ends of the sliders 28b it will engage these sliders to move them inwardly, but will fail to engage and move inwardly any of the sliders 28a. An outwardly extending arm of the lever 332 is connected by means of a Bowden wire 336 and a spring 331 to an upright push rod of conventional'character (not shown) actuated by a suit able cam on the main cam drum of the machine, the inward movement of the lever 332 being limited by abutment of an adjustable screw 338 with a fixed post 340. A spring339 normally holds the cam 332 retracted. v

The cams provided to control the needles, and the pressers, needle jacks and pattern jacks associated therewith will be clear from the interior diagrammatic development of the cams illustrated in Figure 2 withrespect to which the needles and their associated parts move toward the left as viewed in that figure. The cams adapted to act upon the needle butts are the top center cam 342, the forward stitch cam 344, the reverse stitch cam 346, the lower center cam 348, cams- I 358 and 352 and 352a, provided, respectively, to I raise and lower the needles at the second wrap point, cams. 354 and 356, respectively adapted to raise and lower the needles at the first wrap point,

' cams 363 and 365 for the control of long butt needles in the formation of heels and toes, and cams 345, 341, 358, 360, and 362.

Arranged to act uporrthe butts of the presser jacks 24 are the cams 364, 366, and 368.

The cams adapted to act upon the butts 28 of the needle jacks 18 are 314, 315, 316, and 318.

Cams 380, 384, 386, and 380 are provided for action upon the steps 6 and 8 of the pattern jacks 4. A beveled upper edge 388 formed on the cam 386 is adapted to act upon'the lower ends of certain of the pattern jacks to swing them inwardly. Cams 382 and 38411 are arranged to act upon the butts 1 of the pattern jacks-4. A group of cam levers, conventionalizedas a series of cams 384, are arranged for selective action upon the butts III of the pattern jacks. Cams and 384 are relieved as indicated at 381 and The position of the cam 332 shown in Figure '7 is illustrated in Figure 2; A second cam, located in the region where stitches are drawn and indicated at 312 is also adapted to act upon the outer'endaof the sliders 28, but this cam differs from earn 332 in having a sufficient vertical extent to engage the outer ends of all of the sliders of both series 28a and 28b, I

A group of fingers for feeding the main yarns to the needles is indicated at 361, these fingers being arranged to be moved into and out of action in conventional fashion.

In the disclosed machine and as more fully described in said parent application, wrappingand reverse plating are interrelated to the end that selection of certain needles for Wrapping also eifects their being selected for the purpose of reverse plating. So far as the present application is concerned, it will sufllce to point out that all of the presser jacks 24 associated with needles which are selected upwardly in a position to receive wrap yarns will have been raised so as to pass the knitting point at an upper level at which level sliders 28 will engage their surfaces 21 below the projections 25 provided for the usual purpose of preventing accidental downward or upward movements of the presser jacks caused by friction with the needles. At the point where stitches are drawn durin the knitting of plain fabric, each cleaning jack It will be at a level to provide a fulcrum for the bending of its associated needle, this position of the cleaning lacks being hereafter described. Consequently, if the cam 312 is in its inner position to engage the slider 28, each needle which had been upwardly selected at either of the "wrap yarn abutments will be deflected to produce reverse plating oi a plurality of yams fed thereto by one or a pair of the yarn fingers 35?, a pair of yarnsbeing conveniently fed from a single yarn finger through a pair of openings therein if the re verse plating is to be uniform throughout the leg and instep portions of a stocking. This reverse plating will, ofcourse, occur on any needles which have been raised at either of the wrap points, though the reverse plating in this case will underlie the wrapping so that it will not be evident'upon casual inspection of the face orthe stocking. Additionally, reverse plating will occur upon any needles which were selected upwardly but which were .not wrapped owing to their being out or range of relative movement of any wrap yarn. Due to these provisions, a combination of wrapping and reverse plating may be provided before.

th very great possibility for the production of I corresponding pattem jack and needle jack.

Consequently, it partakes of the combined movements of the pattern and needle jacks and as the various needles are raised for selectionat the first and second wranpoints by cams 38d and 38 i, and for interlacing by the action of cam 3%,

all of the cleaning jacks are raised to their high-' est cleaning levels, this rise, orcourse, taking place at slightly different times for the various jacks depending upon the selection or non-selection of the needles with which-they are associated. During leg knitting, cams 316 and 318 successively .lower the needle jacks and with them the cleaning jacks which, at their lowermost position, attained immediately prior to the drawing of stitches, are located to act as fulcra for the deflection of the upper ends of their associated needles by the presser jacks. (See Figure 3.)

In the knitting of the rib, the cam 318 is moved e'r operated upon by the main cam drum of the machine.

When in this position, the depression of the needle jacks and their associated cleaning jacks is delayed so that the cleaning 'jacks remain in an elevated position behindthe needles to give rigidity to those needles in the cylinder which are knitting in the formation or the rib as the dial needles draw stitches. Following this action, the cleaning jacks are brought down as During rib knitting, the active cylinder needles are selected by means of an extra cam in the group 394 which cam is controlled from the main pattern drum and works on the lowest control butt of each pattern jack associated with a needle which is to be active, every alternate pattern jack having this butt while the intermediate jacks lack it. Cam 358 brings idle needles The presser jacks 2 3 also have in the present machine a function in connection with the formation of rib tops. Inprevious rib knitting, as

described particularly in Scott Patent 1,641,101,

dated August 30, 1927, when the transfer operation was to be efiected, a cam was provided to engage the hook ends of the needles as they were raised to receive loops from the dial'needles to line them. up so that they would pass properly through the loops. Injury to the hooks was liable to be caused by the cam'thus provided. In the present machine, the same end of lining up the needle hooks is accomplished through the use of the presserjacks. A cam 332 is provided for this purpose and serves as indicated in the foregoing description of Figures 7 and 8 to engage those sliders 28, designated 28b, which are associated with the needles which were not knitting in the formation of the rib topandwhich were theretofore travelling at a lower level'than the cylinder needles knitting the rib top. These needles are raised by the cam 36s at the timeoi transfer to penetrate the loops formed on the dial needles. As they move upwardly, the needles areriding approximately at the same level as for reverse plating, and consequently the inward movement of the sliders Ziib will provide through engagement with the presser jacks 2d slight rearward movements of the upper ends of the needles to align them properly with the loops. Cam 38 i is withdrawn during the rib formation and cam 368 is in action so that the presser jacks occupy'their upper position suitable for this defiection. It will be noted that at this time the, cleaning jacks associated with these'needleswill be riding at their lower level thus prbviding tulcra for the deflection of the needles. The extent to which the needles are deflected is subject to fine adjustment through the medium of the abutment screw 338. Operation of the cam 33,2 at the proper time is 'efiected through the Bowden wire connection to the main cam drum. The reason for cutting'away the sliders 28a is because the needles associated with them, theretofore knitting the rib, are in a position where they could not be deflected without possible damage. 1

It will not be necessary to go into further detail as to the knitting of rib tops, since this is accomplished, other than as to the variations above described, in the fashion set forth in said Scott Patent 1,641,101, to which reference may be made for details. Suitablecams are provided, as will be evident from Figure 2, for controlling the needle actions, including for instance, the cam 360 referred to above and dividing cam 358, which is brought into action during the formation of the rib. Duringrib formation, inactive needles move under this cam 358, and below stitch cam 346, which is in action during rib formation.

It is likewise unnecessary to describe the formation of heels and toes, which takes place in conventional fashion inthe-formation of complete stockings on the present machine. Suitable pickers and controls are provided, as indicated in the cam layout of Figure 2. During the formation of heels and toes, cam 364 is out of action so that the presser jacks ride continuously at an upper level, being raised by cam 368.

'. What is claimed is: V

1. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, cleaning jacks located in slots in the needle cylinder behind needles therein, and means for imparting sliding movements to said jacks and for locating the jacks in raised position to back up said needles during the drawing of loops by dial needles during rib knitting.

2. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said diaL'cIeaning jacks located in slots in the needle cylinder behind needles therein, and means for imparting sliding movements to said jacks and for locating the jacks'in raised position to back up said needles during the drawing of loops by dial needles during rib knitting, the last named means being altematively operable to effect lowering of said jacks in the same portion of the cylinder needle cycle to clear the spaces behind the needles for needle deflec-' tion.

3. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder andin said dial, and means engaging the outside of cylinder needles below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation.

4. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, adial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, and means engaging the outside of cylinder needles which were inactive during rib knitting below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation.

5. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, and means-engaging cylinder needls' below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetrationof loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation, said engaging means serving for deflection of needles during knitting of plain fabric following the transfer. I a

6. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, axially movable means last mentioned means to clear the spaces behind the needles for needle deflection.

7. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, means engaging cylinder needles below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation, and axially movable means providing fulcra for the deflection of needles under the action of the last mentioned means.

8. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, means engaging cylinder needles which wereinactive during rib knitting below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation, and axially movable means providing fulcra for the deflection of needles imder the action of the last mentioned means. 9. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, means engaging cylinder needles below the upper ends thereof for aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation, said engaging means serving for deflection of needles during knitting of plain fabric following the transfer, and axially movable means providing fulcra for the deflection of needles under the action of the last mentioned means.

10. A circular knitting machin'ecomprising a needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, and means engaging the outside of cylinder needles below the upper ends thereof for deflecting them inwardly and thereby aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation.

11. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, adial, needles slidable in said cylinder and in said dial, and means engaging the outside of cylinder needles which were inactive during rib knitting below the upper ends thereof for deflecting them inwardly and thereby aligning them for penetration of loops on the dial needles during a transfer operation.

12. A circular knitting machine comprising a slotted needle cylinder, a dial, needles slidable in the slots in said cylinder and in said dial, and means movable only axially within the slots in the cylinder and having substantially the width of the needles constructed and arranged to back up said needles and prevent substantial inward movements thereof during the drawing of loops by dial needles during rib knitting.

IVAN w. GROTHEY. 

